Thursday, October 04, 2012

Have Japan and South Korea tried to normalize relations with DPRK?

It was the expected plan with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits, says Kazuya Iwamura, a well known expert on North Korea. He was the Kyodo news bureau Chief in Pyongyang from 2003 to 2008.

2 options: 1) Historical aspect to stabilize relations with Japan's neighbors who are still suffering the memories of the Pacific War and the colonization of East Asia by Japanese militarists under Hiro-Hito. 2) The second reason advanced by Iwamura is about security issues. In the early 2000, North Korea had 100 missiles pointed, the Nodong, towards eventual enemies (US, and its allies South Korea, Japan). But Pyongyang today has 200 Nodong missiles. Ready to be launched. The normalization process has been discussed for years between Tokyo and Pyongyang, secretly, but it now returns to the news since August after talks were held in China between North Koreans and Japanese diplomats. Objectives: denuclearisation, regional security, international crisis management, the whole world could benefit from this diplomatic normalization, Iwamura says. The issue of abductees (Megumi san) remains also a painful issue. For this it will be necessary to go beyond usual maneuvers assumed by Japanese right wing and its counterparts in the US. I have had several contacts with the Koizumi administration and it seems to me that, very close to him, all was made to try to advance on the issue of regional security but Washington stopped all efforts. Junichiro Koizumi a charismatic leader had to give up, not the diplomacy. Today this process continues. But for some reasons, it is always in such difficult negotiations that international crisis happen and stop or slow down negotiations process, such as the territorial issues of the Senkaku Diaoyu (Japan China) and the Takeshima Tokto. (Japan South Korea).